American Road Trip

After a gap of many years I recently returned to teaching the origins of architecture in an undergraduate history survey.   I still call this course “caves to cathedral,”  but I don’t actually begin with caves.  In fact, my first lecture starts with the Seagram Building, but I’m still considering a new nickname: “hut to Bauhütte.” [...]

The other day, early in the new year, I walked to the sea.  Though Irving Berlin was playing in my head–”I joined the Navy to see the world, but what did I see, I saw the sea”–I was far removed from Tin Pan Alley and this was no regular jaunt to the water.  Instead of [...]